March 4, 2010
5:00 p.m.
Sadie’s Pizza Parlor

Ten minutes ago, Kristy had called me, sobbing into the phone about Shaun, begging me to come meet her at Sadie’s. I knew this was coming. I was just waiting for it to happen. And now that it had, I was being the ‘loyal best friend’ and coming to make sure she was ok.
“Kristy,” I called when I saw her sitting alone at a booth in the back of Sadie’s. Her head, which was buried in her sweatshirt-clad arms, popped up when she heard me call her name.
I walked over to her, grimacing as I took in her puffy, red eyes. The black streaks of mascara running down her cheeks. Her untamed, uncombed hair. Her uncharacteristically casual sweatshirt and ratty jeans. She was a mess.
“Shaun left me!” she cried. “Am I really that awful to be around? He only spent a few days living with me, and then he left me! Oh Evalynne, this sucks so bad!”
She let out a high-pitched whimper and blubbered some more. Sighing, I wrapped my arm around her shoulder comfortingly and squeezed her gently.
“Kristy, it’s ok.” I assured her. “You don’t need Shaun. He was way too immature for you anyways. You’re so much better than him.”
Sniffling, she lifted her head to look at me. “I liked his immaturity!” she said. “That’s what I found so cute about him,” She shook her head and continued to cry. “I don’t get it. Our date went totally fine. Hell, it went great! Or at least I thought it did. But apparently Shaun didn’t. What did I do wrong?” She was shouting now, earning stares from the other few people in the restaurant.
“Kristy, just calm down.” I told her. “You barely even knew him. Why are you so upset?” I inquired.
“Because I’m sick of being single!” she exploded. “Ever since Ash came along, guys have been all over you, and I’ve been the lonely loser in the background!”
“Kristy, you are not a loser!” How could she think so poorly of herself? She was such a great person! She was smart, friendly, funny, pretty. Definitely not a loser.
“Yeah I am! Do you know how lonely I’ve been lately? I don’t mean to be rude, but I really wish that I’d never even introduced you to Cole. Maybe then you’d realize that you still have a best friend that you seem to love ignoring.” she snapped.
“Crap,” I muttered. “I’m doing it again.”
“Doing what?” she asked me, wiping her eyes with the back of her sleeve.
“Shutting you out without realizing it.” I told her apologetically. “Being the worst best friend of all time.”
She pursed her lips. “So I’m not important enough for you to even remember about? You shut me out without realizing it? Well thanks a lot, Evalynne. That makes me feel great!” she shouted, sarcastically. She got to her feet and stormed away from me.
“Kristy!” I called after her. But she didn’t turn back.
I sighed deeply, stood up, walked outside, got into my car, drove back home. Why did Kristy have to be such a freakin’ drama queen? Couldn’t she just let me explain what was going on in my life? After all, I had a serial killer living next door to me, my dad had taken some s**** over me, my husband’s ghost was haunting me, and my emotions were being completely slaughtered by both Will and Cole. Couldn’t she just spare me the extra drama?
I got out of my car and walked up my driveway. But the second I stepped foot on my front porch, I heard Michael’s haunting voice speaking to me from his front porch. “You know, I saw you and Will yesterday. I saw you getting out of his car and going into your house.” he said.
I swallowed hard and turned to face him. But I couldn’t even bare to look at him anymore. The second I saw his face my stomach churned, my heart raced, my head spun. I could just picture him lighting Will on fire, trying to kill him. “Uh huh,” I murmured.
“So I’m guessing you two are friends,” he replied.
“Uh huh,” I repeated. My body was trembling and I felt as though I might pass out at any given moment. “Listen Michael, I don’t feel so well right now. Maybe we can talk some other time.”
“Don’t lie to me.” he hissed just as I was about to unlock the front door. Couldn’t this guy just let me be?
“What do you want from me?” I demanded, whipping my head around to face him once again. I was through being nice to him. I didn’t give a damn if he was a killer anymore. I was in no mood to deal with this crap.
His perfectly arched eyebrows rose and he smirked, looking amused. This just made me even more angry. “Whoa, calm down over there.” he said, chuckling. “I was just trying to be friendly. I thought that you and I were friends.”
“Yeah, well we’re not.” I retorted icily. “So just leave me the hell alone!” Then I unlocked the door and stepped inside in one quick motion. I slammed the door shut behind me and locked it, then stumbled over to the couch.
I felt dizzy and uneasy. I needed to get myself a glass of water, but when I tried to stand up I saw spots. I squeezed my eyes shut and let my head hang back on the couch, taking deep, steady breaths. After a few moments of relaxed breathing, I got to my feet. I steadied myself, took another deep breath, and headed into the kitchen for some water.
Once I was seated at the table, sipping my cup of water, I began to feel much better. I sat there for a moment and my eyes ended up landing on the phone, which was sitting about a foot away from me on the kitchen table. Without thinking, I reached for it and dialed in Will’s number.
“Hello,” he said, picking up on the third ring.
“Hey, it’s Evalynne.” I replied.
“Yeah, I know. There’s this cool thing that lets you see who’s calling your phone. It’s called caller I.D.,” he remarked jokingly.
I smiled to myself, grateful for Will’s happy mood. I really needed something to lighten my mood, and Will was the perfect person to do that. “Very funny,” I replied, still smiling. “But I didn’t call to discuss caller I.D. with you. I called because I was wondering if you wanted to come over so we can start coming up with a plan.”
“I would if I could, but I can’t.” he told me apologetically. “I’m actually on my way to Pennsylvania right now. I’m going to visit Lacey, my girlfriend.”
“You’re going to Pennsylvania today?” I inquired. He didn’t tell me this yesterday. In fact, yesterday he’d suggested coming over to my house so we could plan. But now he was too busy visiting his girlfriend? What was that all about?
“Yeah, I would’ve told you yesterday if I’d have known that I was going to do this. But I didn’t. I just decided to today.” he informed me.
“Why?” I blurted out before I even realized how desperate I sounded. I might as well have just told him that I was p***sed that he’d decided to go visit Lacey over me.
“I just needed to get away from everything. Between Michael and my parents…I just couldn’t take it anymore. So I decided to head out here to Pennsylvania. I’m really looking forward to seeing Lacey again, and I’m probably going to catch up with John and Vince too.” he explained to me.
“Oh, well that’s cool.” I said. But I was lying. I didn’t think that was cool at all. In fact, I was actually wishing that Will would decide that he really wanted to spend the day hanging out with me rather than Lacey, John, and Vince.
“Yep,” he replied. “But if you want to start planning without me, feel free to. We can hang out tomorrow and you can tell me everything that you came up with.”
“Yeah, that sounds good.” I agreed. Now I was determined to come up with an incredibly genius plan so that I’d have something to impress Will with when he got back.
“Cool, so I’ll see you tomorrow then?”
“See you tomorrow,”
“Alright, I’ll stop by around one. Bye,” Then he hung up.
Immediately, I began to scan my mind for any way to find evidence on Michael. Something I could show the cops. Something I could use to get him arrested.
As I sat there thinking, I glanced out the window just in time to see Kevin and Trish’s car pulling out of the driveway. Sighing, I looked away from the window, staring down at my hands which sat on the table. I wasn’t doing such a great job of planning.
I turned back to the window and something caught my eye. Michael was now standing on the porch, watching his parents’ car roll off down the street before climbing into the driver’s seat of his own car.
Then he started it up and backed out of the driveway. Now the McKnight’s house was vacant. So if I were to break in and search for any evidence on Michael, there wouldn’t be anyone there to stop me.
I grinned to myself, pleased with my idea. But I was also terrified. What if Michael forgot something and came back to find me standing in his living room? What if when he saw me standing there, he assumed that I’d already found the evidence against him? What if when he assumed I’d already found the evidence against him, he killed me?
I took a deep breath, flashing back to when I saw those burn marks on Will’s arm. Michael was a monster. He needed to be stopped. It was up to Will and I to stop him. And since Will wasn’t there at the moment, I needed to whatever I could to stop him myself.
And so I would.